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Fenerbahce 1-1 Man Utd: 5 things learned

A night that left us with more questions than answers

Yuveer Madanlal
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25/10/2024
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6 min read

One of which is what is Erik ten Hag trying to do with his style?

But a third straight draw in the Europa League still leaves United in 21st position after three games. The new format leaves room for progression despite a poor start but a poor start it remains nonetheless.

Much like Porto, in an isolated match, a 1-1 in Turkey against Mourinho isn't the worst but we really should've taken all 3 points. Yet it was another confusing game from MUFC from the starting lineup to the end.

1. Starting XI

Erik ten Hag used Noussair Mazraoui as CAM in Man Utd's 1-1 draw with Fenerbahce | Photo by YAGIZ GURTUG/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images - The Busby Babe

I get it. When you are missing some players, of course you're going to have to do something a little different.

But even still, it's not as if he didn't have his main defence available, it's not as if he couldn't play Martinez next to De Ligt and make us more defensively solid than with Lindelof there who was majorly at fault for the goal.

And,

MAZRAOUI AS CAM?!

Yeah, I don't know what ten Hag was smoking when he made this choice.

It absolutely did NOT work and while it wasn't a complete disaster, it was just a waste.

Mazraoui looked seriously out of sorts and even if he had played there before at some point in his career, it was clear last night that he hadn't done so in a long time.

When Erik ten Hag decided to make the changes early in the second half, we then started to look like an actual team. Casemiro moved into midfield, Martinez to centre-back, Eriksen as CAM and Mazraoui to left-back.

This is when we started to control the game and have more of the possession. Not sure why this couldn't have been done from the start tbh.

There is no future with what he did. Even if it was a one-off selection, those can sometimes allow us to see that maybe this is something we can do in the future. Having Mazraoui as CAM, Martinez at LB and a centre-back who probably shouldn't be at the club in Lindelof on the field and in those positions didn't give us any indication at all that should push come to shove, we can go with this in the future.

Even for Erik ten Hag this lineup was pretty ridiculous.

2. Still can't defend crosses

I'm sorry to have to keep repeating myself here but we are terrible when it comes to defending these.

Out of the 14 goals we've conceded in total this season, 11 have come from corners, free-kicks or crosses.

Another piece of poor defending allowed Jose's team to get in a cross and score a pretty simple goal.

We need to get tighter so that we can prevent the cross in the first place but if it does come in, the defending needs to be so much better.

What Lindelof was doing in that situation was criminal. In fact, he did nothing at all.

As a centre-back, how can you not jump for a cross?

While this was the only ball into the box that led to a goal, Fenerbahce were still creating their best chances from out wide. As we failed to properly stop them from creating their attacks from the flanks, the home side continued to cause us problems.

They had an early chance in the opening few minutes when Bright Samuel sat Martinez down but decided to take a shot from a tight angle which hit the side netting rather than look for a team-mate of which he had a couple in good positions.

There were also others that led to THAT block by Ugarte from Tadic and the double save from Onana.

I'm not sure why we haven't tried to improve in this area that has been a long-standing problem.

3. Careless and wasteful

We don't have that care needed at times nor do we have the composure.

When United get into certain situations, we always seem to make the wrong call especially in the final third.

The overall care on the ball is also something that is not good enough as we are prone to giving it away very easily.

When setting up in a defensive structure as we did for most of the game, you need that care so as to keep the ball and try to make the most of it the few times you have it. Losing it stupidly or playing sloppy passes just allows the opposition to regain possession easily and us having to wait a while to get the ball back.

The ball retention from us is simply not good enough. We also don't hold it up too well to allow us some respite as well as bring others into play.

As we were defensive and not creating too many chances, when those opportunities are created, they need to be taken. United were in behind on a couple of occasions but poor decision-making or execution resulted in wasted opportunities.

One particular chance by Dalot in the second half after he was played through by Casemiro stands out. Those are the moments that can make the difference between winning, drawing and losing.

4. Manuel Ugarte

This was the game where we saw what he's all about, both in a positive and negative sense.

That block from Tadic was the same as scoring a goal as he prevented the Fener skipper from a couple of yards out when he had an open goal in front of him.

Ugarte made blocks, tackles and recoveries like that throughout the game. Sometimes he was a little late and at other times, displayed a poor ability on the ball, but that is him in a nutshell.

I also like his ability to cover for his defenders whenever they're out of position as we saw him make some good challenges from those situations too.

This is the whole reason why we bought him as he displayed what he can bring to the side. Him nicking the ball was the trigger for us to go on and get the goal. I'm not sure why Erik ten Hag has been reluctant to use him because I feel that if he had more minutes in the tank, we could've seen more games from Ugarte like this.

I'm hoping that after this performance, the manager would use him a lot more because we could use a player like that in our midfield. He was one of a handful of positives to take away.

5. We are a game-to-game team

Rasmus Hojlund battles with ex-United player Fred - Fenerbahce 1-1 Man Utd | Photo by Burak Kara/Getty Images via Stretty News

What Erik ten Hag has made us is a side that works on a game-to-game basis.

Depending on who's available, the opposition we're playing and the location, the manager will choose a team accordingly and more than that, a style that is specific for that particular game.

This is where I believe most of the frustration lies. Yes the results aren't great because we aren't winning enough (1 win in our last 7 in all comps and 1 win in our last 11 European games) but if we saw a clear identity and style, we would be a little more forgiving for those poor results.

The draw at Palace is a game that springs to mind. 0-0 wasn't the result we all wanted but that was the best 90 minutes of football we've played this season and for a while.

That performance at least gave us something to say that we can see what this team is trying to do and is something to build upon.

But that was a one-off because other than the second half against Brentford, we haven't seen anything like that since.

Are we are side that likes to defend deep, hit on the break and go long? Do we want to be a transitional team? Do we look to press teams high up the pitch? Does ten Hag want to be possession-based? DOES TEN HAG EVEN KNOW WHAT HE'S DOING?!

When you can't decide what your team are, that is a serious problem.

Whatever he does decide, if he decides anything at all (which at the moment seems far-fetched), stick to it. 'Stick to the plan' as he likes to say.

If you're going to be a defend deep, counter-attacking side, then be it. We may not like it but at least it is something.

We cannot be having this indecisiveness as while a certain style may work for one particular game, in the long run, it won't be sustainable.

I believe the next three games (West Ham, Leicester, Chelsea) will see three different styles from United.

That is the problem.

Background Image: Man Utd applaud traveling supporters after their 1-1 draw against Fenerbahce | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)

Yuveer Madanlal

Yeah, I can talk and talk and talk about the things I love, like football and United, as you can see in this post. Once I get on a roll, it's pretty hard to stop me. This is all coming from a guy who doesn't talk that much. How weird.

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